The Fundamentals of Living a Life with Purpose

Living Well Requires You To Be Well physically and emotionally. Let’s talk emotionally;

When you choose to live with purpose you are choosing to live life with enthusiasm; you are always looking for new ways to enjoy the life you have. The type of purpose referred to has more to do with living your life to the fullest rather than having a purpose driven and given to external projects. Certainly, these types of projects give us satisfaction and do good for others, but in this context of aging consciously, we need to address “us” before we can look to assisting others.

As we have written previously, living well requires work, and so does living happily. The concept of conscious aging is not new it is simply being repurposed and re-presented to fit today’s mature demographic.

Aging consciously has us asking ourselves questions such as;

What is a good life?

How should I treat others?

How do I manage today’s stress?

How do I rid myself of unnecessary worry?

How will I deal with this new found liberty?

The first fundamental of living this life of purpose is to examine the life you have.

Examine it through reason, not a reaction to an occurrence. Reasoning, is what allows humans to distinguish right from wrong, it allows us to establish relationships, and lets us appraise, explore and participate in the world around us.

The second fundamental is to not worry about things that you have no influence or control over.

Focus only on what you can change by your actions and that you have control of, which more often than not is “you”! In other words, accept the fact that while we cannot control all of life’s outcomes, we can control our responses to the results and herein lies our potential for a life of happiness and fulfillment, a life of purpose.

The third fundamental is the appreciation and reciprocation of friendship.

One of the keys to living with a purpose comes from nurturing current friendships and cultivating new ones. No other species has the need for or benefits from friendship which according to Greek philosophy is one of the defining characteristics of being human. Friendships are indispensable to living a life with purpose because one can not speak of true happiness without the bond of friendship. No amount of wealth, power, nor status can compensate for genuine friends. Friendships do not just happen they are found and maintain on purpose and provide us a life of purpose.

The fourth is allowing yourself to seek and experience the true pleasures life offers.

Doing so requires us to avoid shallow passing pleasures. Look for the simple pleasures like walking along a river and wondering at the power it has while offering tranquility to those who take the time to stop and listen. Consider how waking up to sunshine can bring energy to your day and how thunder and lightning bring suspense touched with a little anxiety about the unknown but still beckons us to walk in the rain. Our ability to look beyond the obvious, to find strength in beauty, and to experience fierceness in our fear. These are some of the pleasures offered in our life of conscious aging when we seek a life of purpose while living with disciplined restraint.

The fifth is Keeping your life simple.

Conscious Aging is best achieved through a life of simplicity. Do what you can to not over complicate things. The news complicates our lives by the never ending “breaking news” that was never broken in the first place. It was just telling of some terrible act done by someone somewhere that made us fear something unknown. The words alone and images have us getting sucked into issues we have no control over and in fact have no control in our lives. Take the time to simplify what and where you experience life. A book is better than a sound bite, a painting viewed in person is more beautiful than an image on a website could ever be. A walk in the park is better than a bus to a busy shopping center. And the old adage of take time to smell the roses can never be done remotely.

Each of these five steps has a purpose. That purpose is to show you the way to living life to its fullest and in a way that leaves you wanting more of it.